SEO News

But Google has spent close to 20 years learning how to serve up the best, most relevant content in its search results – now averaging over 3.5bn search queries a day.

If content marketers could tap into some of that vast knowledge, wouldn’t that provide some important clues on how to create killer content? 

Below I’ve listed six areas in which insights from Google can help you develop better, more relevant content that chimes with your target audience.  If you’re a content marketer or content creator, you can get a sense of some of these insights by simply running searches on topics that you’re interested in – and studying what Google throws up in its results. 

However your SEO or search marketing teams are very likely using specialist tools to track and manage their programmes that can provide more detailed data and insights:

1. What sub-topics should your content include?

Correlation studies suggest content that ranks highly on Google tends to be holistic and comprehensive and generally has a bigger word count – because it covers topics in greater depth.

These studies also indicate that the main topic is usually paired with certain other topics. For the overall topic that’s being covered there are usually a number of mentions of some important ‘proof terms’ (which are very closely connected to the main topic) and ‘relevant terms’ (slightly more distant but still relevant). 

If, for example, you were to analyse the top articles on the topic “Mexico Holidays”, you might see that proof terms such as “Mexico hotels” or “Mexico flights” are common, as well as relevant terms such as “Riviera Maya” or “Cancun sights”. 

So analysing Google searches can tell you that if you are going to write about A, you should also cover B and C, because those are the things your audience will be interested in. 

2. Who is your real competition when it comes to content? 

The people and businesses you are competing with when it comes to content marketing, may not be those you compete with directly for sales. When you’re writing about specific topics, Google searches can highlight competitors with similar content that can give you inspiration. 

For example a UK search for “buying a car” surfaces results (on the first two pages) from the AA breakdown service (providing useful advice on the pitfalls to avoid and a wide range of buying tips), a Gov.co.uk web page (with advice and links to help you avoid buying a stolen vehicle), a couple of banks (including articles that discuss car loans, financing, saving for a car and running costs) as well as pages from the Citizens Advice Bureau, the consumer section of the BBC website, money saving advice sites and several car buying magazine sites which include listings of new and used cars for sale.   

Studying high ranking competitive content – even if it’s not from your direct competitors – can provide ideas and also help you spot gaps about areas that are not being covered adequately or can be developed further.

Some search tools analyse the content on your website and give you a list of your top content competitors on Google – giving you a sense of who’s writing content similar to yours.  

3. How should content be presented on your site?

Google tracks user signals, such as bounce rates and time on site and uses this data to evaluate the relevance of your content to the search query.

These metrics also allow the search engine to get a measure of the user experience of individual pages and websites. 

An important aspect of this is how information is presented – which means reviewing high ranking content that covers similar topics to you can provide important clues in areas such as the number and quality of images on a page, the presence of video, the readability of text and the use of bullet points, numbers, charts and tables to organise information.  

4. When should you launch fresh content and promote it?

The volume of searches and questions people ask Google and when they do it, can help you plan when to create fresh content pieces and when you should put effort and promotional budget into distributing it (i.e. what time of year, month).

Google provides free tools such as the AdWords keyword planner and Google Trends which can provide some guidance in this area.

However your SEO and search marketing teams may be using other, more sophisticated search tools that provide in-depth analysis of how search volumes on specific topics vary over time.  

5. What format or media should you choose for your content in the search results?  

The most appropriate content on a specific topic – or for a specific intention – isn’t always text on a standard web page.

Over the years Google has embraced this and is now integrating more and more box-outs (such as video, apps, shopping, direct answers, knowledge graphs etc.) within its organic search results. 

Analysing these universal and extended search integrations can give you insights about the different media and formats your content strategy should incorporate to address your target’s individual requirements. 

So a UK Google search on “tying a bow tie” throws up a Direct Answer box at the top of the page with numbered instructions. Underneath this are some video integrations followed by a variety of instructional diagrams that appear in image box-outs.

Obviously you can get an idea of the integrations/box-outs Google selects by simply performing keyword searches related to the topics you want to cover.

If you can manage to get your content appearing in these, then you can potentially boost your traffic. And there are search tools available to help you track the appearance of Google’s universal and extended search integrations for your site to see how your content is performing.

6. How effectively does your content meet the needs of your audience

We’ve already said that Google’s experience of successfully serving up relevant content day in day out, means it has a wealth of experience. 

So one way of assessing if you’re online content is working, is to track and measure how it performs in search. After all, if Google positions your content highly in searches – then it’s likely doing a good job of answering searchers’ questions.

You could even put a monetary value on the ‘power’ of each piece of content by getting your SEO or search marketing team to help you estimate how much you’d have to pay in AdWords advertising to generate the same level of search visibility.

7. When should you repurpose, consolidate or even delete content?

If your content is simply not performing in Google searches (i.e. not ranking well, not getting much traffic with visitors bouncing away quickly when they land on the page), and your SEO team has told you that all the technical and user experience aspects of your page/site (site speed, file size, page structure etc) are fine, it could mean your content is just not right.

You may need to rework it completely or consolidate several content pieces into one (maybe it doesn’t cover all the aspects of the topic that people want to learn about) or even delete it. 

At least: do something. Because if Google doesn’t think it should perform well in searches, maybe it won’t chime with people either.

Content marketing and SEO have been coming closer together for many years, and in 2017 we’ll see them getting closer still. 

Because much of the data and insights that SEOs have been using to optimise web pages for Google can support the creation of better, more compelling content.

For more on this topic, check out these Econsultancy resources:

• The Future of Content Marketing
• Implementing Content Strategy: Digital Best Practice Guide
• Content Marketing training courses
• SEO training courses

But Google has spent close to 20 years learning how to serve up the best, most relevant content in its search results – now averaging over 3.5bn search queries a day.

If content marketers could tap into some of that vast knowledge, wouldn’t that provide some important clues on how to create killer content? 

Below I’ve listed six areas in which insights from Google can help you develop better, more relevant content that chimes with your target audience.  If you’re a content marketer or content creator, you can get a sense of some of these insights by simply running searches on topics that you’re interested in – and studying what Google throws up in its results. 

However your SEO or search marketing teams are very likely using specialist tools to track and manage their programmes that can provide more detailed data and insights:

1. What sub-topics should your content include?

Correlation studies suggest content that ranks highly on Google tends to be holistic and comprehensive and generally has a bigger word count – because it covers topics in greater depth.

These studies also indicate that the main topic is usually paired with certain other topics. For the overall topic that’s being covered there are usually a number of mentions of some important ‘proof terms’ (which are very closely connected to the main topic) and ‘relevant terms’ (slightly more distant but still relevant). 

If, for example, you were to analyse the top articles on the topic “Mexico Holidays”, you might see that proof terms such as “Mexico hotels” or “Mexico flights” are common, as well as relevant terms such as “Riviera Maya” or “Cancun sights”. 

So analysing Google searches can tell you that if you are going to write about A, you should also cover B and C, because those are the things your audience will be interested in. 

2. Who is your real competition when it comes to content? 

The people and businesses you are competing with when it comes to content marketing, may not be those you compete with directly for sales. When you’re writing about specific topics, Google searches can highlight competitors with similar content that can give you inspiration. 

For example a UK search for “buying a car” surfaces results (on the first two pages) from the AA breakdown service (providing useful advice on the pitfalls to avoid and a wide range of buying tips), a Gov.co.uk web page (with advice and links to help you avoid buying a stolen vehicle), a couple of banks (including articles that discuss car loans, financing, saving for a car and running costs) as well as pages from the Citizens Advice Bureau, the consumer section of the BBC website, money saving advice sites and several car buying magazine sites which include listings of new and used cars for sale.   

Studying high ranking competitive content – even if it’s not from your direct competitors – can provide ideas and also help you spot gaps about areas that are not being covered adequately or can be developed further.

Some search tools analyse the content on your website and give you a list of your top content competitors on Google – giving you a sense of who’s writing content similar to yours.  

3. How should content be presented on your site?

Google tracks user signals, such as bounce rates and time on site and uses this data to evaluate the relevance of your content to the search query.

These metrics also allow the search engine to get a measure of the user experience of individual pages and websites. 

An important aspect of this is how information is presented – which means reviewing high ranking content that covers similar topics to you can provide important clues in areas such as the number and quality of images on a page, the presence of video, the readability of text and the use of bullet points, numbers, charts and tables to organise information.  

4. When should you launch fresh content and promote it?

The volume of searches and questions people ask Google and when they do it, can help you plan when to create fresh content pieces and when you should put effort and promotional budget into distributing it (i.e. what time of year, month).

Google provides free tools such as the AdWords keyword planner and Google Trends which can provide some guidance in this area.

However your SEO and search marketing teams may be using other, more sophisticated search tools that provide in-depth analysis of how search volumes on specific topics vary over time.  

5. What format or media should you choose for your content in the search results?  

The most appropriate content on a specific topic – or for a specific intention – isn’t always text on a standard web page.

Over the years Google has embraced this and is now integrating more and more box-outs (such as video, apps, shopping, direct answers, knowledge graphs etc.) within its organic search results. 

Analysing these universal and extended search integrations can give you insights about the different media and formats your content strategy should incorporate to address your target’s individual requirements. 

So a UK Google search on “tying a bow tie” throws up a Direct Answer box at the top of the page with numbered instructions. Underneath this are some video integrations followed by a variety of instructional diagrams that appear in image box-outs.

Obviously you can get an idea of the integrations/box-outs Google selects by simply performing keyword searches related to the topics you want to cover.

If you can manage to get your content appearing in these, then you can potentially boost your traffic. And there are search tools available to help you track the appearance of Google’s universal and extended search integrations for your site to see how your content is performing.

6. How effectively does your content meet the needs of your audience

We’ve already said that Google’s experience of successfully serving up relevant content day in day out, means it has a wealth of experience. 

So one way of assessing if you’re online content is working, is to track and measure how it performs in search. After all, if Google positions your content highly in searches – then it’s likely doing a good job of answering searchers’ questions.

You could even put a monetary value on the ‘power’ of each piece of content by getting your SEO or search marketing team to help you estimate how much you’d have to pay in AdWords advertising to generate the same level of search visibility.

7. When should you repurpose, consolidate or even delete content?

If your content is simply not performing in Google searches (i.e. not ranking well, not getting much traffic with visitors bouncing away quickly when they land on the page), and your SEO team has told you that all the technical and user experience aspects of your page/site (site speed, file size, page structure etc) are fine, it could mean your content is just not right.

You may need to rework it completely or consolidate several content pieces into one (maybe it doesn’t cover all the aspects of the topic that people want to learn about) or even delete it. 

At least: do something. Because if Google doesn’t think it should perform well in searches, maybe it won’t chime with people either.

Content marketing and SEO have been coming closer together for many years, and in 2017 we’ll see them getting closer still. 

Because much of the data and insights that SEOs have been using to optimise web pages for Google can support the creation of better, more compelling content.

For more on this topic, check out these Econsultancy resources:

• The Future of Content Marketing
• Implementing Content Strategy: Digital Best Practice Guide
• Content Marketing training courses
• SEO training courses

Posted by George-Freitag

This is it. The full agenda for MozCon Local 2017 and LocalU Advanced Workshop on February 27-28. If you’re a brand with a ton of locations or an agency with local clients, you’re going to want to come to MozCon Local 2017. We’ve got an amazing line-up of speakers from some of the top brains in Local Search to help you put together the perfect local marketing strategy and get the most out of local search.

Come visit us in Seattle and learn about local search, SEO, citations, reviews, enterprise-level strategy, and so much more. Interact directly with speakers both during Q&A sessions and mingle with other marketers at the after-party.

Buy your MozCon Local 2017 ticket!

Day One: LocalU Advanced Workshop

Day Two: MozCon Local Conference

Buy your MozCon Local 2017 ticket!

Speakers

Aaron Weiche
Get Five Stars
@AaronWeiche
Session: Powerful Customer Content – Reviews, Testimonials, Case Studies

Aaron Weiche is the CMO for GetFiveStars.com, a customer feedback and online review platform. Aaron is a digital marketing veteran of over 18 years growing agencies small and large in executive and partner roles. Aaron has built and optimized hundreds of websites for companies and organizations of all sizes. He helped found the MnSearch Association, is a faculty partner at Local University, Google Analytics Certified, and speaks nationally on search marketing, social media, reviews, web design and mobile. Aaron also blogs on local digital marketing at AaronWeiche.com.

Anita Bhatti
STAT
@anitabhatti
Session: Implementing and Measuring the Local SEO Funnel

Anita is the Director of Marketing at STAT where she leads a team of super talented folks obsessed with bringing valuable SERP insights to SEO experts. Prior to STAT, she took on the marketing challenges of a local yoga startup and a global SaaS company.

Ashley Berman Hale
Mobile Moxie
@bermanhale
Session: Optimizing for Location Based Search

Ashley has been doing technical SEO for over 12 years and has a knack for figuring out what holds sites (large & small) back. She’s a longtime Google Webmaster Top Contributor and started one of the most successful SEO meet-ups in the country.

Britney Muller
Moz
@BritneyMuller
Emcee, MozCon Local

Originally from MN, Britney resides in Denver, CO where she does SEO & Content Architecture for Moz. Britney has been doing digital marketing for over 10 years and founded Pryde Marketing, a strategic Medical Marketing Agency, in 2013.

Christi Olson
Bing
@ChristiJOlson
Session: Future-Proofing Your Local Strategy: A Panel with Google, Bing, and Yelp

Christi is a Search Evangelist at Microsoft in Seattle, Washington. Prior to joining the team at Bing Ads at Microsoft, Christi has worked at Point It, Expedia, Harry & David, Pointmarc, Microsoft (MSN, Bing, Windows), and the Altria Corporation. For over a decade Christi has been a student and practitioner of SEM; living and breathing through the evolution of search updates (both organic and paid) that have kept us constantly adjusting our digital strategies. Christi is passionate about digital and has spent her career helping businesses solve their marketing challenges and goals through studying and analyzing data to develop actionable insights and strategies.

Cindy Krum
Mobile Moxie
@Suzzicks
Session: Mobile First Tactics for Local

Cindy Krum is the CEO and Founder of MobileMoxie, and author of Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are, which gets 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon. She is the leading Mobile SEO consultant, and is thought leader in the search industry. Cindy works with many top-notch, internationally recognized clients, assisting with mobile SEO, Responsive Design, mobile site migrations and site-speed optimization.

Darren Shaw
Whitespark
@DarrenShaw_
Sessions: 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey Results, The New Local Search Ecosystems & Citation Sources That Matter in 2017

Darren Shaw is the president and founder of Whitespark, a company that builds software and provides services to help businesses with local search. He’s widely regarded in the local SEO community as an innovator, one whose years of experience working with massive local data sets have given him uncommon insights into the inner workings of the world of citation-building and local search marketing. Darren has been working on the web for over 16 years and loves everything about local SEO.

Ed Reese
Sixth Man Marketing
@ed_reese
Sessions: KPIs That Really Matter for Local Businesses

Ed has been helping companies improve their online marketing efforts through his agency, Sixth Man Marketing, since 2008. In January of 2016 Sixth Man was acquired by J.E.B. Commerce and is operating as their analytics and optimization division. He’s a Faculty Member at LocalU and an Adjunct Professor of Digital Marketing at Gonzaga University. He’s also an aspiring disc golfer with one tournament win under his belt and and active family (with two young sons) that keep him busy.

George Freitag
Moz
@georgefreitag
Session: The Driving Data of Local Search

George is the Local Search Evangelist and SEO Strategist for Moz Local where he helps brands, practitioners, and business owners alike get the most out of local search. Prior to Moz, George was the head of SEO at Portent, a digital marketing agency in Seattle.

Greg Gifford
DealerOn
@GregGifford
Session: TBD

Greg Gifford is the Director of Search and Social at DealerOn, a software company that provides websites and online marketing to new car dealers all over the country. Check out their awesome blog for more of Greg’s local search posts and videos.

Heather Physioc
VML
@HeatherPhysioc
Session: Think Locally, Act Globally

Heather Physioc is Director of Organic Search at global digital ad agency VML, which performs search engine optimization services for multinational brands like Wendy’s, Bridgestone, Ford, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

Kate Morris
Craftsy
@katemorris
Session: The Nitty Gritty of Getting Reviews

Kate Morris is the Director of SEO at Craftsy and an Associate for Moz. She has been in search for 14 years with a soft spot for branding and user experience.

Lauren Polinsky
MGM Resorts International
@laurenpolinsky
Session: Link Brainstorming Panel

Lauren is an experienced marketer who pursues holistic, innovative changes for digital brands by providing content strategy recommendations rooted in SEO best practices. She’s focused on SEO optimization strategies with have a background in both print and digital marketing.

Mary Bowling
Ignitor Digital
@MaryBowling
Session: On-Page Optimization for Local Search – What You May Be Missing

Mary has been involved in all aspects of SEO since 2003 and has always been intrigued by Local Search. With a background as a serial entrepreneur, she always tries to approach Local Search and internet marketing in a practical way and from a small business owner’s perspective. Mary is an SEO practitioner and consultant, speaks frequently on Local Search at industry conferences and trains other individuals and groups in successful Local Search strategy and tactics.

Michael Wiegand
Portent
@mwiegand
Session: Integrating Google Data for Local

Michael Wiegand is an experienced digital marketer of 14 years who specializes in analytics and conversion rate optimization for Portent – a Seattle-based Internet marketing agency. After attending Cal Baptist University, Michael began his career in direct marketing in 2002, in the healthcare and real estate verticals. In 2007, he joined Portent’s growing team of marketers and subsequently founded the company’s analytics division.

Mike Blumenthal
Get Five Stars
@mblumenthal
Sessions: Reviews, The Ultimate Assist, Google My Business Problem Solving, Are Words the New Links?

Mike grew up sweeping floors in his family retail business at age 7 and saw the challenges of local marketing up close from an early age. Before co-founding GetFiveStars.com and LocalU.org, he had been doing what we now know as Local SEO since 2005 and writing at his blog, Understanding Google Local, since 2006. He loves researching and understanding the issues that confront bricks and mortar storefronts and helping owners, agencies and franchises tackle the challenges of the ever changing local marketing world.

Mike Ramsey
Nifty Marketing
@MikeRamsey
Session: Lessons Learned Over The 8 Years Running My Agency

Mike Ramsey is the President of Nifty Marketing and NiftyLaw. He is the author of Winning At Local Search, an international speaker, and a partner at LocalU. Mike founded Nifty Ventures in 2009, which has been recognized by Inc. as one of the fastest-growing companies in America.

Nate Evans
Yelp
@nateevans84
Session: Future Proofing Your Local Strategy: A Panel with Google, Bing, and Yelp

Nate Evans, Sr. Manager of Business Development, focuses on growing Yelp‘s advertising partners program. Nate joined Yelp in 2008 and previously held prior leadership roles in local and enterprise sales. Prior to Yelp, he worked at Allison & Partners public relations, where he worked in the tech division with clients such as YouTube, Zinio & Parallels. Nate holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley.

Paula Keller French
Search Influence
@paulakfrench
Session: Beyond Keyword Research: Optimize Content for Relevancy with Proof Terms

Paula Keller French has worked to establish strategic digital marketing solutions for clients since 2009, when she joined Search Influence on the then 9-person team. Paula contributed to the company’s rapid growth by building and training a team of 30+ effective account strategists. Today, Paula plays online marketing matchmaker by identifying the right marketing solutions to match business goals to help companies in almost any industry optimize their potential, with a heavy hand in medical, legal, tourism, and home services.

Rand Fishkin
Moz
@randfish
Session: MozCon Local 2017 Keynote

Rand Fishkin uses the ludicrous title, Wizard of Moz. He’s founder and former CEO of Moz, co-author of a pair of books on SEO, and co-founder of Inbound.org.

Rhea Drysdale
Outspoken Media
@Rhea
Session: Local Linkbuilding through PR and Outreach

Rhea Drysdale is Chief Executive Officer of Outspoken Media where she oversees the strategic vision and growth of the company, its clients, and team.

Willys DeVoll

Google
@willysdevoll
Sessions: Google My Business Problem Solving, Future Proofing Your Local Strategy: A Panel with Google, Bing, and Yelp, Scaling Local with Google My Business

Willys Devoll is a content strategist for Google My Business and a member of the AdWords Content Strategy and Development team. He has also worked as a technical writer and content developer on Google for Work. In the past, DeVoll worked for Major League Baseball Advanced Media in communications, and at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, where he contributed to research in the Literary Lab.

Buy your MozCon Local 2017 ticket!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

Posted by FeliciaCrawford

Now that we’ve comfortably settled into the first two weeks of 2017, it’s time to revive an annual Moz Blog tradition: the Best of 2016 is here!

I’ve carefully collected data on all the posts, comments, and commenters you remarkable readers liked the most this past year, compiling it all into one big, beautiful blog post. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll rue the day you ever downloaded Pocket. But as we commence our journey into the insights and revelations of yesteryear, my sincere hope is that you’ll feel inspired. That you’ll learn something new, or reflect on what’s changed. That you’ll tack a new task onto your bucket list (“Become a Moz Top Commenter” is way more hip than traveling to all 7 continents, people).

Flip on some classic Tina Turner to set the mood and join me as we sift through what you decided was simply the best of 2016.

Table of Contents

1. Top posts by 1Metric score
2. Top posts by unique visits
3. Top YouMoz posts by unique visits
4. Top posts by number of thumbs up
5. Top posts by number of comments
6. Top community comments by thumbs up
7. Top commenters by total thumbs up
8. New: Category-specific RSS feeds!

1. The top 10 posts according to our 1Metric score

1Metric is our handy-dandy internal metric that measures how well a piece of content is doing. There were quite a few high scores in 2016, with a clear, strong trend toward core SEO topics. You might notice some posts making it onto a few different lists — consider those the absolute must-reads, and make sure you didn’t miss anything big!

1. 8 Old School SEO Practices That Are No Longer Effective – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, April 29th Are you guilty of living in the past? Using methods that were once tried-and-true can be alluring, but it can also prove dangerous to your search strategy. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand spells out eight old school SEO practices that you should ditch in favor of more effective and modern alternatives.
2. My Single Best SEO Tip for Improved Web Traffic by Cyrus Shepard, January 27th “If content is king, then the user is queen, and she rules the universe.” Are you focusing too much on the content, rather than the user? In his last post as a Mozzer, Cyrus Shepard offers his single greatest SEO tip for improving your web traffic.
3. On-Page SEO in 2016: The 8 Principles for Success – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, May 13th On-page SEO is no longer a simple matter of checking things off a list. There’s more complexity to this process in 2016 than ever before, and the idea of “optimization” both includes and builds upon traditional page elements. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores the eight principles you’ll need for on-page SEO success going forward.
4. 301 Redirects Rules Change: What You Need to Know for SEO by Cyrus Shepard, August 1st Google blew our minds when they said 3xx redirects no longer lose PageRank. Cyrus is here to give you the low-down on what this means for SEO.
5. 10 Predictions for 2016 in SEO & Web Marketing by Rand Fishkin, January 5th Rand examines the accuracy on his predictions for 2015 and, if he does well enough, taps into his psychic ability to predict 2016. Spoiler alert: He’s pretty accurate.
6. 8 Rules for Choosing a Domain Name – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, July 15th 8 rules for choosing a domain name: Make it brandable, pronounceable, short, intuitive, bias to .com, avoid names that infringe on another company, use broad keywords, and if not available, modify.
7. Can SEOs Stop Worrying About Keywords and Just Focus on Topics? – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, February 5th Should you ditch keyword targeting entirely? There’s been a lot of discussion around the idea of focusing on broad topics and concepts to satisfy searcher intent, but it’s a big step to take and could potentially hurt your rankings. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses old-school keyword targeting and new-school concept targeting, outlining a plan of action you can follow to get the best of both worlds.
8. Weird, Crazy Myths About Link Building in SEO You Should Probably Ignore – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, September 9th From where to how to when, there are a number of erroneous claims about link building floating around the SEO world. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand sets the record straight on 8 of the more common claims he’s noticed lately.
9. How Long Does Link Building Take to Influence Rankings? by Kristina Kledzik, August 21st The eternal question: How much time does it take for a link to affect rankings? Kristina Kledzik breaks out the entire process from start to finish.
10. SEO for Bloggers: How to Nail the Optimization Process for Your Posts – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, June 3rd With the right process and a dose of patience, SEO success is always within reach — even if you’re running your own blog. Optimizing your blog posts begins as early as the inception of your idea, and from then on you’ll want to consider your keyword targeting, on-page factors, your intended audience, and more. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand spells out a step-by-step process you can adopt to help increase search traffic to your blog over time.

2. The top 10 blog posts by unique visits

Rand and his Whiteboard Fridays steal the show this year, with some fantastic cameos by our good friends Cyrus and Dr. Pete, and a promoted YouMoz post that’s worth its backlinks in gold.

One interesting thing to note: You really loved last year’s “Predictions for SEO” post. While 2016 was unpredictable on multiple levels, Rand still made the cut — be sure to check out his predictions for 2017, released just yesterday.

1. 8 Old School SEO Practices That Are No Longer Effective – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, April 29th Are you guilty of living in the past? Using methods that were once tried-and-true can be alluring, but it can also prove dangerous to your search strategy. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand spells out eight old school SEO practices that you should ditch in favor of more effective and modern alternatives.
2. 8 Rules for Choosing a Domain Name – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, July 15th 8 rules for choosing a domain name: Make it brandable, pronounceable, short, intuitive, bias to .com, avoid names that infringe on another company, use broad keywords, and if not available, modify.
3. My Single Best SEO Tip for Improved Web Traffic by Cyrus Shepard, January 27th “If content is king, then the user is queen, and she rules the universe.” Are you focusing too much on the content, rather than the user? In his last post as a Mozzer, Cyrus Shepard offers his single greatest SEO tip for improving your web traffic.
4. On-Page SEO in 2016: The 8 Principles for Success – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, May 13th On-page SEO is no longer a simple matter of checking things off a list. There’s more complexity to this process in 2016 than ever before, and the idea of “optimization” both includes and builds upon traditional page elements. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores the eight principles you’ll need for on-page SEO success going forward.
5. Title Tag Length Guidelines: 2016 Edition by Dr. Pete, May 31st Google is testing a wider left-column, and with it, wider display titles. We dig into the data to see how long your titles should be. TL;DR? Stick to under 60 characters.
6. 301 Redirects Rules Change: What You Need to Know for SEO by Cyrus Shepard, August 1st Google blew our minds when they said 3xx redirects no longer lose PageRank. Cyrus is here to give you the low-down on what this means for SEO.
7. 10 Predictions for 2016 in SEO & Web Marketing by Rand Fishkin, January 5th Rand examines the accuracy on his predictions for 2015 and, if he does well enough, taps into his psychic ability to predict 2016. Spoiler alert: He’s pretty accurate.
8. How to Achieve 100/100 with the Google Page Speed Test Tool by Felix Tarcomnicu, April 3rd The website loading speed is imperative for the overall user experience, and it’s also one of the hundreds of SEO ranking factors. The truth is that nowadays, people don’t have the patience to wait more than five seconds for a page to load. If your website is not loading fast enough, you will lose potential customers.
9. Targeted Link Building in 2016 – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, January 29th SEO has much of its roots in the practice of targeted link building. And while it’s no longer the only core component involved, it’s still a hugely valuable factor when it comes to rank boosting. In this week’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand goes over why targeted link building is still relevant today and how to develop a process you can strategically follow to success.
10. How to Create 10x Content – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, March 18th Have you ever actually tried to create 10x content? It’s not easy, is it? Knowing how and where to start can often be the biggest obstacle you’ll face. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about how good, unique content is going to die, and how you can develop your own 10x content to help it along.

3. The top 10 YouMoz posts by unique visits

Late in 2016, we lost another old friend. And while YouMoz can’t claim to have sung the best song about an astronaut you’ll ever hear, we still loved it dearly while it was with us. Retiring our process for community contributions was a hard but ultimately necessary decision, and while we hope to have a newer, sleeker process in place someday, let’s take a moment to revisit the most popular posts from the final year of YouMoz.

1. How to Use Six Google Analytics Reports to Complete a Website Content Audit by Daniel Hochuli, February 18th In this article, I will show you how a content audit with six important Google Analytics reports can help you make some smart decisions about the health of your current site, what your audience wants from your content, and how you can benchmark your performance for future content marketing efforts.
2. How to Find and Fix Structured Data Markup Errors via the Google Search Console by Al Gomez, April 7th Make your content easier for the search bots to read by eliminating data markup errors from your website.
3. 5 Essential E-Commerce Rich Snippets for Your Store by Aleh Barysevich, February 2nd When it comes to online marketing bang for your buck, rich snippets are hard to beat.
4. 5 YouTube Tools to Boost Your Content Marketing Efforts by Ann Smarty, March 3rd YouTube marketing can be overwhelming. Ann Smarty shares her favorite video marketing tools that let you discover more opportunities and allow you to achieve better results.
5. Here’s How to Automate Google Analytics Reporting with Google Sheets by Gabriele Toninelli, February 25th When it comes to automating your Google Analytics reporting, Google Sheets is your friend.
6. How to Perform an Image Optimization Audit by Ryan Ayres, January 20th Have you made image optimization a priority for your website? If not, there’s no time like the present.
7. Here’s How My 5-Step YouTube Optimization Strategy Generated 5,121,327 Views by Amir Jaffari, January 28th In this article, Amir Jaffari explains how following a 5-step process enabled him to increase his annotation CTR by 22,400% (from 0.2% to 45%), how he received 150,000 views from annotations, and how this resulted in millions of views.
8. Hacking Facebook’s Local Awareness Ads: 5 Advanced Tips by Garrett Mehrguth, January 26th For years, local businesses relied solely on direct mail, stickers, flyers, referrals, and word of mouth. These were the life-blood of their business. Now, in the digital age, we can replace these tactics with a more affordable digital channel that has the power to bolster all of our other marketing channels.
9. 10 Simple Steps for Creating a Blog Your Readers Will Adore by Martina Mercer, March 21st The keys to making your blog a success is knowing who’ll be reading it and what they desire in the way of content.
10. Here’s How to Visually Map a Content Strategy by Katy Katz, June 13th When it comes to building a content strategy to guide your brand, seeing is believing, so creating a visual roadmap can help mightily.

4. The top 10 posts by number of thumbs up

If the heated debate in 2016 was whether technical SEO was necessary or important, the trends here suggest an answer: it is. While you’ll see some overlap with our top posts by 1Metric here, be sure you don’t miss Dave Sottimano’s challenging (yet rewarding) task list for Junior SEOs or Mike King’s masterpiece analysis of the technical SEO renaissance.

1. My Single Best SEO Tip for Improved Web Traffic by Cyrus Shepard, January 27th “If content is king, then the user is queen, and she rules the universe.” Are you focusing too much on the content, rather than the user? In his last post as a Mozzer, Cyrus Shepard offers his single greatest SEO tip for improving your web traffic.
2. On-Page SEO in 2016: The 8 Principles for Success – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, May 13th On-page SEO is no longer a simple matter of checking things off a list. There’s more complexity to this process in 2016 than ever before, and the idea of “optimization” both includes and builds upon traditional page elements. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores the eight principles you’ll need for on-page SEO success going forward.
3. Can SEOs Stop Worrying About Keywords and Just Focus on Topics? – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, February 5th Should you ditch keyword targeting entirely? There’s been a lot of discussion around the idea of focusing on broad topics and concepts to satisfy searcher intent, but it’s a big step to take and could potentially hurt your rankings. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses old-school keyword targeting and new-school concept targeting, outlining a plan of action you can follow to get the best of both worlds.
4. 8 Old School SEO Practices That Are No Longer Effective – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, April 29th Are you guilty of living in the past? Using methods that were once tried-and-true can be alluring, but it can also prove dangerous to your search strategy. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand spells out eight old school SEO practices that you should ditch in favor of more effective and modern alternatives.
5. Weird, Crazy Myths About Link Building in SEO You Should Probably Ignore – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, September 9th From where to how to when, there are a number of erroneous claims about link building floating around the SEO world. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand sets the record straight on 8 of the more common claims he’s noticed lately.
6. Linking Internally and Externally from Your Site – Dangers, Opportunities, Risk and Reward – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, April 15th Navigating linking practices can be a treacherous process. Sometimes it feels like a penalty is lurking around every corner. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about the ins and outs of linking internally and externally, identifying pitfalls and opportunities both.
7. Targeted Link Building in 2016 – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, January 29th SEO has much of its roots in the practice of targeted link building. And while it’s no longer the only core component involved, it’s still a hugely valuable factor when it comes to rank boosting. In this week’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand goes over why targeted link building is still relevant today and how to develop a process you can strategically follow to success.
8. An Essential Training Task List for Junior SEOs by David Sottimano, August 10th With 5 detailed projects that drag you through the technical trenches, this customizable training program for Junior SEOs should put you on the road to skill mastery (and a nice career edge) in just a couple of months.
9. The Technical SEO Renaissance: The Whys and Hows of SEO’s Forgotten Role in the Mechanics of the Web by Michael King, October 25th Technical SEO is more complicated and more important than ever before, while much of the SEO discussion has shied away from its growing technical components in favor of content marketing. Mike King makes a compelling case for exactly why and how a returned focus on technical SEO will rejuvenate and revolutionize the search game.
10. A Step-by-Step Process for Discovering and Prioritizing the Best Keywords – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, May 6th Rand outlines a straightforward and actionable 4-step process (including an array of tools to check out) for uncovering and prioritizing the best keywords for your SEO campaigns.

5. The top 10 posts by comment volume

By the end of 2016, commenting on the Moz Blog took a sharp 180°. We implemented sophisticated filters to catch a higher volume of spam, with even more improvements in the works. I declared it my personal quest to improve comment quality (I can only deny so many invitations to join the Illuminati before it starts to get freaky), and we worked to spark creative discussion from the get-go.

Without further ado, I give you the top blog posts in 2016 that struck a chatty chord:

1. My Single Best SEO Tip for Improved Web Traffic by Cyrus Shepard, January 27th “If content is king, then the user is queen, and she rules the universe.” Are you focusing too much on the content, rather than the user? In his last post as a Mozzer, Cyrus Shepard offers his single greatest SEO tip for improving your web traffic.
2. 8 Old School SEO Practices That Are No Longer Effective – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, April 29th Are you guilty of living in the past? Using methods that were once tried-and-true can be alluring, but it can also prove dangerous to your search strategy. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand spells out eight old school SEO practices that you should ditch in favor of more effective and modern alternatives.
3. Weird, Crazy Myths About Link Building in SEO You Should Probably Ignore – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, September 9th From where to how to when, there are a number of erroneous claims about link building floating around the SEO world. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand sets the record straight on 8 of the more common claims he’s noticed lately.
4. Linking Internally and Externally from Your Site – Dangers, Opportunities, Risk and Reward – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, April 15th Navigating linking practices can be a treacherous process. Sometimes it feels like a penalty is lurking around every corner. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about the ins and outs of linking internally and externally, identifying pitfalls and opportunities both.
5. How to Build a Facebook Funnel That Converts – Whiteboard Friday by Ryan Stewart, October 14th Are you getting the most out of your Facebook ads? In this guest-hosted Whiteboard Friday, Ryan Stewart outlines his process for using remarketing and targeted content creation to boost conversions.
6. How Long Does Link Building Take to Influence Rankings? by Kristina Kledzik, August 21st The eternal question: How much time does it take for a link to affect rankings? Kristina Kledzik breaks out the entire process from start to finish.
7. Accidental SEO Tests: How 301 Redirects Are Likely Impacting Your Brand by Brian Wood, January 19th Those 301 redirects could be more costly to your brand than you previously imagined. Brian Wood dives into the results of an accidental SEO test that turned out to be serendipitous.
8. The 9 Most Common Local SEO Myths, Dispelled by Joy Hawkins, April 19th Have you taken any of these statements as truth? In this post, Google My Business Top Contributor Joy Hawkins shares and debunks the Local SEO myths she runs into most frequently.
9. 301 Redirects Rules Change: What You Need to Know for SEO by Cyrus Shepard, August 1st Google blew our minds when they said 3xx redirects no longer lose PageRank. Cyrus is here to give you the low-down on what this means for SEO.
10. Four Ads on Top: The Wait Is Over by Dr. Peter J. Meyers, February 19th In a 2-week timeframe, Google AdWords top ad blocks with 4 ads jumped from 1% to 36%, and right-column ads disappeared entirely (moving to the bottom-left position).

6. The top 10 community comments by thumbs up

One of the best things about the Moz Blog is what happens in the comments section. You folks support each other immensely, and that’s nowhere as apparent as in how you interact. The top comments from 2016 tended to be on the longer side, thoughtful, TAGFEE, and full of love and concern for our Moz community when times got rough. These are the top comments from 2016, as voted by you.

1. Gianluca Fiorelli | August 17th Commented on Moz is Doubling Down on Search
2. Gianluca Fiorelli | February 5th Commented on Can SEOs Stop Worrying About Keywords and Just Focus on Topics? – Whiteboard Friday
3. Rand Fishkin | March 28th Commented on Are Keywords Really Dead? An Experiment
4. Mark Jackson | August 17th Commented on Moz is Doubling Down on Search
5. Devendra Saxena | February 19th Commented on Four Ads on Top: The Wait Is Over
6. Gianluca Fiorelli | March 18th Commented on How to Create 10x Content – Whiteboard Friday
7. Tomek Obirek | April 15th Commented on Linking Internally and Externally from Your Site – Dangers, Opportunities, Risk and Reward – Whiteboard Friday
8. Gianluca Fiorelli | August 2nd Commented on Wake Up, SEOs – the NEW New Google is Here
9. Gianluca Fiorelli | January 27th Commented on My Single Best SEO Tip for Improved Web Traffic
10. Wil Reynolds | September 8th Commented on The Future of the Moz Community

7. The top 10 community member commenters by total thumbs up

When you’re in charge of the Moz Blog, you get to know your regular commenters. These folks put a great deal of time and effort into stating facts, asking questions, and more than anything else, reading. Say hello to the top community commenters of 2016 by total thumbs up earned!

1. Shalu Singh, username Shalusingh MozPoints: 505 | Rank: 214
2. Larry Kim, username larry.kim MozPoints: 2,809 | Rank: 34
3. Samuel Scott, username SamuelScott MozPoints: 3,694 | Rank: 25
4. Mustansar Iqbal, username Ikkie MozPoints: 1,026 | Rank: 127
5. Joe Robison, username Joe.Robison MozPoints: 1,218 | Rank: 111
6. Joy Hawkins, username JoyHawkins MozPoints: 580 | Rank: 190
7. Tom Capper, username Tom.Capper MozPoints: 905 | Rank: 134
8. Tomas Vaitulevicius, username TomasVaitulevicius MozPoints: 200 | Rank: 566
9. Alexandra Tachalova, username Alex-T MozPoints: 468 | Rank: 224
10. Jennifer Slegg, username jenstar MozPoints: 784 | Rank: 147

Category-specific RSS feeds (Whiteboard Friday fans, rejoice!)

Historically, the only way to subscribe to Moz Blog updates via RSS feed was to commit to the entire thing — every post, every topic, even if you were only into content marketing and didn’t care a fig for anything technical.

That was back in 2016, though. In this bold new odd-numbered world, we now have RSS feeds for our most popular categories. Whiteboard Friday devotees, it’s time to party.

Here’s a list of feeds you can now subscribe to; if you have a desire to follow a category we haven’t covered here, let me know in the comments and we may be able to make it a reality. (Key word: may. I’m only a Level 5 blog mage, after all.)

• Advanced SEO
• Whiteboard Friday
• On-Page SEO
• Link Building
• Keyword Research
• Technical SEO
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Basic SEO
• Content (also includes Blogging, Copywriting, Email Marketing, and Video categories)
• Paid Search Marketing (PPC) and Online Advertising
  
• Analytics and Reporting
  
• Social Media and Public Relations
  

Onward and upward!

Thanks to everyone who works and plays so hard to keep the Moz community thriving; this place could never be what it is without our readers, commenters, authors, and behind-the-scenes Mozzers. Much earnest thanks to Moz Blog veteran Trevor Klein for some key SQL help, which made my life while writing this post easier by leaps and bounds.

I can’t wait to see what our next year brings. Hope to see you somewhere on this list come 2018!

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